An affluent suburb of Chicago was recently rocked by a suspected gas explosion.
The explosion happened last Friday in the village of Long Grove, which is approximately 35 miles north of Chicago. The blast happened in the prestigious Royal Melbourne subdivision of the village.
A local fire department chief told reporters that at least one home was completely destroyed and that the block looked as if it was “hit by a tornado.”
At least 50 homes within a quarter mile radius were damaged and the explosion was reportedly heard from miles away. Many of the closest houses had their windows blown out.
“The only thing I can equate it to is pictures I’ve seen of a tornado,” said Long Grove village president Angie Underwood to CBS News.
“It’s going to be a long, arduous process because of the amount of damage,” Steingart told the Daily Herald, adding that pinpointing a specific cause would be difficult. “We may never know because of the amount of destruction.”
No one was seriously injured or hurt, which firefighters have called a miracle.
A woman named Sheryl Sheiner was home alone at the time of the blast. Sheiner was brushing her teeth and reportedly fled the house when she heard a pop and saw an outdoor generator in flames from her bathroom window.
Sheiner was walking to a neighbor’s house to call 911 when her house exploded. She was reportedly 50-100 feet from her home at the time of the blast. Sheiner’s husband and dogs were out of town.
“She, by the grace of God, did not go back into her house to retrieve something and those seconds really saved her life,” village president Underwood said.
Authorities said that there was a technician investigating reports of gas smells at the time of the blast.
About 100 students from Stevenson High School helped clean up the debris in the neighborhood over the weekend.
“It really helped me and other students to think about what we had,” one of the volunteer students said.